FicWad

I stood there, in a black trench coat in the dead of one of the coldest New York City winters. My claves were freezing and I cursed the fact I was terrible at hailing cabs. I didn’t understand why my sister had dragged me to her big-time corporations’ balls, and why she forced me to dress myself up, but I obliged. Unfortunately, I had my own business to attend to back in Chicago, and about an hour into the party, I snuck out and grabbed my luggage from the hotel across the street and decided to make an early commute to the always crowed Manhattan Airport. So I stood there, on the sidewalk edge, in shiny black Mary-Jane heels, nude pantyhose, a knee-length dark red dress and only my coat and thin gloves to keep me warm. I breathed out and rolled my eyes at the frost that was created. Another cab sped by as I waved and I turned, flipping him off.

“Need help?”

I turned at the voice and raised an eyebrow at the man who stood behind me, wheeling his own luggage behind him. I shrugged.

“If you think you can get a cab, it’s like everybody in the city hates me,” I joked.

“I’m sure not everybody,” he pushed. I sighed again and watched as he extended his arm as a Taxi came near. Amazingly, it slowed down and stopped right next to us, and he offered a small smile.

“Ok, you deserve this one,” I mumbled, eyeing him. He shrugged.

“Where are you heading?” he asked, opening the door of the taxi. I paused for a moment, wondering if I should trust this guy. Though, he seemed harmless, if looks could tell anything. His hair was longer and he wore glasses, but not those creepy 80’s stalker/rapist glasses. After staring at him and him raising a suspicious eyebrow, I shook my head and laughed uneasily.

“Manhattan airport,” I announced. His expression turned slightly confused, but laughed it off.

“Well, what a coincidence!”

I took that as him going there too and let him help me load my luggage in the trunk, him dumping his two bags in as well. I walked around to the door again, and smiled to myself as I climbed in, watching as he followed and took charge in telling the cab driver where we were heading. He adjusted his rear-view mirror before pulling into the already busy street.

“If you don’t mind me asking,” I turned to him and raised an eyebrow. “What’s with the dress?”

I was about to respond when the driver closed the little window that separated us and laughed a little. When I looked back at the man who sat next to me, I paused.

“I don’t even know your name, Mr.” I voiced, slightly frowning. He extended his hand and I gripped it, my hand literally disappearing in his. He observed it and laughed softly.

“Andrew, Andy, it doesn’t matter,” he finally answered. I nodded and he eyed me until I let my eyebrows shoot up in surprise.

“Sorry,” I laughed uneasily. “Rona,”

Andy grinned.

“That’s a pretty name,”

“Thanks,” I whispered. He looked out the window momentarily and sighed.

“I’m not fond of New York,” he spoke. I nodded, looking out the opposite window as we passed the building where my sister was currently having her party. My phone buzzed in my lap and I eyed it, seeing her face taking up my iPhone. I rolled my eyes as Andy looked over and nodded.

“Same here,” I agreed flatly. I answered, only to hear a slightly tipsy and loud voice that belonged to my sister.

“Left already?” her Irish accent was stronger than ever. “What’s your flight number?” I fumbled through my coat pockets until I found the receipt from the computer I had printed and explained it to her. Andy’s eyebrow shot up and I eyed him for a moment as my sister rambled.

“I’ll talk to ya’ later sis, the brandy bottle won’t open,”

I laughed shortly and hung up before Andy spoke up.

“Ok. So first off, our flights are the same-”

“Strange,” I added. He nodded but then spoke again.

“Second, why is your sister Irish?” he asked. I blinked.

“Because she was born there?” I asked back. Andy chuckled but shook his head.

“You know what I mean,” he mentioned, and reached up to tug at his coat, unbuttoning it for obvious comfort. I smirked softly and leaned back as well, finally placing my handbag on the ground in front of me.

“She’s my half-sister, my mom re-married 5 years ago and my step dad had a daughter a little older than me,” I widened my eyes for a moment. “Bringing back why I’m in a dress,” I laughed and Andy nodded.

“Seems strange for the dead of winter,”

“My sister had a huge business party,” I simply explained. He nodded and glanced at me again.

“What do you do in Chicago?” he pondered. I froze, which was strange and tripped over a response. Instead, I just smiled. “You smile at strangers?”

After a short laugh, I shook my head.

“I live there while getting nervous at strangers,”

Andy seemed to become skeptical at my mannerisms, and we grew quiet until his own phone began to ring out and I tried not to listen to his conversation.

“My flights’ tonight, dear,”

He hung up shortly there after and I skewed my mouth to one side.

“Got somebody waiting for you?” I joked. Andy chuckled lightly.

“I was just joking with my band mate,” he mentioned. I was intrigued now.

“Band?”

“I’d rather not talk about it,”

I frowned.

“Sorry,” I mumbled. Andy offered a soft smile.

“Drums,” he simply said. I lowered my head bashfully and moved my glance out the window, noting our conversation had distracted us from the traffic, and now we were pulling up to the terminal. I grabbed at my purse again and began to open my wallet when Andy’s hand met mine and he pushed at them.

“I’ll pay,” I eyed him suspiciously and he assured me with his gaze. “Really,”

I let Andy pay the driver as we stopped, and got out of the car early so that I could begin to grab most of my bags from the trunk. Andy optioned to help yet again, and even continued to carry one of them as we walked through the doors and towards the check-in counter. I went before him, and seeing that I had the opportunity to sneak away, I took it, grabbing my bags and heading to the gate to go through security.

“Rona,” I turned slightly to see him catching up and skewed my mouth to one side. “Come on, don’t ditch me yet,”

We walked somewhat silently through security and even though we stole the occasional glances, it was still a little strange that he continued to talk with me. I waited at the end of security and was staring down at my ticket when he came up to me.

“By chance, what’s your seat?” he asked. I glanced at the paper again and he smirked, over looking it again. “You want the window, because I can’t deal with the window,”

I laughed at him again and shrugged.

“I love watching take-off,” I admitted. Andy nodded at me and from there, we walked towards our gate, finding a line forming for boarding. We chatted a little until we got on board, and there on, we focused mainly on people-watching, occasionally snickering with each other as other passengers struggled to get their belongings into the overhead compartments.

“It’s snowing in Chicago,” I whispered, looking at my phone as checked the weather conditions. Andy sighed.

“Good, I like the cold,”

I shut off my phone after that and looked out the window, sighing as we began to Taxi. The flight attendants did their routine instructions and I had to laugh at the bored expression the one in first class had. I leaned back once they were done and as we sped up a little, I let my hand dig into the arm rest, Andy looking at me strange.

“Habit,” I confessed. He shrugged, and innocently leaned over to look out the window with me as we took off. I let my breath hitch and literally felt my heart skip a beat and I only looked away when Andy placed his hand over mine.

“You ok?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. I nodded and turned as I yawned, opting to lean back again and rest both my mind and eyes. I opened them several minutes later to Andy’s hand shaking my shoulder lightly and I cleared my throat.

“Are we there already?” I mumbled.

“Not exactly,” he whispered. I turned my head fully to see a flight attendant and shifted my eyes.

“What’s going on?” I asked, feeling a little anxious. The flight attendant shifted her eyes.

“Can you come with me, both of you?”

I looked at Andy and he frowned, but stood up and it was then that I noticed that everybody in the cabin was asleep. We followed her into the pilot’s cabin and that’s when I started to believe I was dreaming. The pilot was hunched over, obviously unconscious and the co-pilot was sweating, on the edge of a nervous breakdown. I blinked rapidly and Andy widened his eyes as far as he could.

“What the hell is going on?” he yelled. The flight attendant breathed out shakily.

“Please,” she paused. “The pilot is dead and this is the co-pilot’s first flight and he said that I shouldn’t tell the other attendants what’s going on,” she paused and shifted her eyes to me. “He said find the first person who was awake and bring them here,”

“Well what do you want me to do?” Andy bellowed, raising his arms in the air. “I’m not a fucking pilot!”

The attendant looked at the co-pilot and I leaned to steal a glance at him.

“Andy,” I breathed. “Is this really happening?” I questioned. He shrugged and placed a hand over his face. “I don’t even know,” he muttered. I stepped forward and stopped next to the pilot.

“Uhm,” I started. He snapped his eyes up to me and instantly he seemed to crack, his body snapping alert before slumping down and the controls going haywire. The plane dived momentarily before I leaned over and without really knowing what I was doing, grabbed at the steering, pulling it up again. Andy leapt forward as well, grabbing onto my arms from behind me to help. The flight attendant groaned, and after taking a quick glance behind, I noted she too had fallen to the ground.

“Fuck,” Andy announced. I chomped onto my bottom lip. “We need to get a pilot up here,” he mentioned. I shook my head.

“No time,” I yelled and Andy sat down, taking the controls from me. I glanced around for a microphone and after figuring out which one would call ground control, pressed the button. “Help!” I said first. Andy looked up at me.

“Are they answering?” he yelped. I shook my head.

“No,” It was then that I abandoned my first response and ran back to the passenger cabin and started shaking people awake. After getting past a few rows, I realized that they weren’t responding either. I tested something.

“WE’RE CRASHING!” I yelled and let my entire expression fall when nobody, not a single person responded. Running back to Andy in the pilot’s cabin, I let the tears graze my eyes but forced them back when Andy looked at me.

“What’s wrong?” he paused to yank at the controls to the best of his abilities so that the plane was only moderately shaking through the snow and rain. “Other than the obvious,”

I shook my head and ripped off my coat, throwing it away and cursing my sister for the fact I was still in my cocktail dress and heels. Andy raised an eyebrow.

“All the passengers are unresponsive, but we don’t have time for them,” I breathed, leaning over him to grab the controls. Andy took the hint and took off his coat, rolling up his sleeves and taking them back. I sat next to him in the pilot’s seat, trying to figure out what I was looking at.

“I think our altitude is ok,” he mentioned. “I just don’t know how to land a plane spontaneously, Rona,”

I felt more tears grazing my eyes, and they burned my cheek as they fell, but surprisingly, that was it. I wasn’t in hysterics and was able to work through them, trying the radio again.

“Does anybody know how to land a plane?” I ended with a soft laugh, earning a concerned glance from Andy. The radio crackled a little bit before a scratchy voice came through.

“Are you a passenger?” they asked. I nodded before closing my eyes tight in stupidity.

“Yes,” I gulped. “I’m Rona,”

“Is there anybody else with you?” the voice inquired. Andy looked at me shortly.

“Andy,” I explained.

“Andy?”

“Andy.”

The voice crackled out for a moment before returning, a little more panicked.

“We have you on our radars, we will help you land in Buffalo, alright?” he assured. “Put me with Andy,” I walked to Andy and placed the radio closer to his ear and sighed, not believing what was happening. The voice explained the steps and surely but slowly, the two of us were sitting at both pilot chairs, my hands flipping certain gears while Andy steered.

“Landing gear on?” he asked. I nodded and the voice sighed out.

“Alright, that’s all I can help you with,” he paused. “Just ease it down, it’s gonna be bumpy, just use lots of breaks and pull back as hard as you can,”

I looked to Andy and he frowned before pressing the radio again.

“I don’t need him to distract us,” he explained. I nodded and looked out the window, noting the lights that were approaching.

“I don’t know if I’m ready for this,” I mumbled, glancing up as my eyes hazed over again.

“Look at me,” I turned my head to Andy and he turned his expression from stern to soft. “If we do this, we’ll be ready for anything,”

I held my breath as he turned back and slowly, we pulled back on the steering, preparing ourselves for decent. I winced as much as I could without closing my eyes and pulled back harder when the plane started going faster towards the ground and gulped deeply as we continued to dive into the runway. We only started to slow down slightly when we got low enough and when I looked back out the window, I knew it was only moments before we hit ground. Just as I thought it, I gripped the steering harder, my body bouncing up as he touched briefly, Andy cursing softly.

“We’re too fast,” he yelled over the rumble. We continued to skip down the runway and I closed my eyes tighter, but used all the force I had left in my body to pull the controls, leaning all the way back. We skidded even harder and I didn’t even relax when we started to slow down. I peered open and felt my breath even shakier when I noted another plane ahead of us, but let my breathing turn slightly normal when we slowed down even more. Andy and I relaxed when we finally stopped and peered at each other for a moment. I eyed the radio and instantly turned it on, hearing major crackles.

“Congrats!” the voice yelled. “Stay there! We’re sending help!” he announced again. I couldn’t help but laugh out, still in an unbelievable state, as I turned it off again, slumping in my seat and banging my head against the controls.

“Rona,”

Andy’s hand met my shoulder and I turned my head in his direction, finding an exhausted smile on his features.

“Yeah?”

“Ok?” he breathed. I nodded once and sat up.

“As ok as I can be,”

We both looked out the window as we saw a fire truck and a few ambulance driving towards the plane. I knew I should have been worried about the other passengers, but for some strange reason it disappeared to the back of my head when Andy looked back at me.

“So you ready for anything?” he asked. I smiled and let my glance fall bashfully again as I nodded. Andy leaned forward and I cheekily grinned before lifting my head as he lightly kissed me. It was soft, and gentle and strange, but perfect. He pulled away from our small peck and breathed a smile as we locked eyes.

“So am I,”